Genomics
for Wildlife Conservation and Management:
Studies of the Newfoundland Caribou (Rangifer)
(Corinne Wilkerson, M.Sc. candidate,
work in progress)

Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) were formerly
abundant on the island of Newfoundland. From an estimated 40 ~ 200,000
animals in 1900, caribou numbers on the
island declined to near extirpation in the 1930s, remained at about
6,500 animals in the late 1950s, and have since increased to ca. 80,000
individuals distributed among a series of herds managed in separate
hunting units. Population numbers are again
decreasing, and natural population cycles appear to played a role in
this decline. Expected
consequences of such reduction in population
include loss of genetic variation and divergence of local populations
through genetic drift. Preliminary genetic studies of two genes
(~2Kbp) in the mitochondrial DNA genome
from two herds (Middle
Ridge and Merasheen Island)
identify at least three distinctive haplogroups
(genetic lineages). Two of these are essentially localized
to Middle Ridge, whereas the third is
characteristic of an island population known to have been
transplanted from the interior in the 1970s. Genetic diversity is less
in the island population, which is dominated by a single haplotype.